Teel Time

Georgia stressed Alabama like no other. Ohio State dismantled Michigan’s top-ranked defense. Central Florida hasn’t lost since the Obama administration. Given the chance, any or all of the three might have brought considerable drama to this season’s College Football Playoff. But the CFP invites...

Kihei Clark is scheduled to have surgery on his broken left wrist Monday. The injury limited his dribbling Sunday, contributed to a turnover or two and may shelve him for a few games. But Clark’s contributions to undefeated Virginia’s 57-49 victory over VCU can’t be overstated. “When you’re a little...

Talk about sterling and prophetic debuts. In the opening half of his Bowl Subdivision baptism, Bryce Perkins became the first University of Virginia quarterback in nine years to rush for more than 100 yards in a game. In his first Virginia Tech start, Ryan Willis threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns...

More than most coaches, Justin Fuente and Luke Fickell understand the contrasts, real and perceived, subtle and glaring, among Power Five programs and the rest of college football’s Bowl Subdivision. This goes beyond the television revenue, ticket sales and fundraising advantages that Fuente enjoys...

Clemson is playoff-bound again, Virginia and Virginia Tech landed ideal destinations, and a record-tying 11 teams qualified for bowls. But make no mistake, ACC football has collectively underperformed in 2018, making the league’s postseason prospects grim indeed. Selection Sunday unfolded as it...

In 2012, Virginia Tech rescued its bowl streak with late-November victories over two last-place teams that finished a combined 6-18. Saturday afternoon, for the second time in as many weeks, the Hokies saved their postseason streak by defeating a bowl-bound opponent with considerable chops on both...

There is much to applaud about Virginia’s 76-71 basketball victory at Maryland on Wednesday. Indeed, Jack Salt’s career night, Kyle Guy’s heat-check first half and another Ty Jerome dagger might well make U.Va.’s year-end highlight reel. This will not, but this was central: In their first road...

Bobby Wilder’s winning percentage as Old Dominion’s football coach is .628. That’s better than the career marks of Washington State’s Mike Leach, West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen and Syracuse’s Dino Babers, each of whom leads a team in this week’s top 25. Wilder’s Monarchs are also two years removed...

Friday was Ricky Walker’s 64th football game at Virginia Tech. In five seasons with the Hokies, he has experienced a division championship, three bowl victories and a road upset of eventual national champion Ohio State. But never had he endured this combination of big-play reversals, stomach-churning...

Before hiring Dave Clawson to coach the University of Richmond’s football team in 2004, then-Spiders athletic director Jim Miller interviewed Mike London. Miller was determined to land Clawson, who had steered Fordham to national relevance, and didn’t consider London a serious candidate. But London...

Alone in his office on a late-September Friday, George Welsh made the decision that changed the 1984 football season and, for the rest of the 20th century, the Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry. Nearly 700 miles to the southwest, a fledgling named Frank Beamer was preparing his undefeated Murray State...

Jimmye Laycock convened his final game-day staff meeting at 10:59 a.m. Saturday. The gathering was brief and similar to the 444 that came before during his peerless career as William and Mary’s head football coach. Laycock and his 10 assistant coaches finalized strategy for the afternoon’s contest...

As Jimmye Laycock toured me through his office this week, we stopped upon a small photograph framed and displayed on the top shelf of a bookcase. There he is with Frank Beamer, a decades-long friend, holding a cake decorated with a football. But who is the third gentleman in the photo? Another...

Virginia Tech was outscored 14-0 in the third quarter in each of its last three defeats. Notre Dame was first, followed by Georgia Tech and Boston College. All the games were at home, in front of increasingly perturbed fans. That’s not a good look for anyone. Offense, defense and special teams....

The two most dominant teams in ACC football history won the national championship. The third lost in the national title game. Undefeated and second-ranked Clemson is following a similar path this season. Indeed, the Tigers have been so overpowering of late that Vegas installed them as 18-point...

After his team’s crushing NCAA tournament defeat in March, Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett heard from his friend Joe Stewart, a high school coach in Ohio. Offering reassurance, Stewart forwarded a copy of a letter Indiana’s Bob Knight received in 1975. Knight’s squad had just completed a...

No team embodies ACC Coastal Division volatility like Pittsburgh. The Panthers entered last week 12th among the conference’s 14 teams in scoring at 24.3 points per game. They’d hung 44 on Syracuse, but one touchdown came on defense and another in overtime. So what happened Saturday? Against the...

The NBA’s G League tips off its 18th season Friday. The barnstorming developmental circuit includes 27 teams, including the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Maine Red Claws and Sioux Falls Skyforce, playing before modest crowds in ordinary arenas. For example, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers’ home opener last...

There is no doubt who played the ACC Coastal Division’s best football in October. Virginia did, and it’s not close. The Cavaliers punctuated their perfect month Saturday with a 31-21 victory over North Carolina at Scott Stadium, earning bowl eligibility for the second consecutive season — the last...

Virginia Tech won the 2016 ACC Coastal Division title despite a baffling home loss to a Georgia Tech team playing a backup quarterback. The Hokies fell at Lane Stadium to the Yellow Jackets and their QB2 again Thursday night. No one who watched the historic carnage expects Virginia Tech to rebound...

ACC commissioner John Swofford confirmed Wednesday what he told me in July was probable: The league will start the 2019-20 men’s basketball season with a full slate of seven conference games. The one-year experiment coincides with next year’s launch of the ACC Network and will give the project...